Page 152 of Triggered By Love
“Don’t you get it? Secret Service was here for the show, but now that they’re gone, it’s time for the hit. I can feel it.”
“That’s impossible,” Finn said. “No one is armed.”
“Not with guns, but they might have poison.” He quickly told Finn about the pufferfish poison found on the quills of his headdress. “One of them, most likely Ivanna, could have kept a few of the poisoned quills.”
“Who do we tackle first?” Finn asked.
“Blade will take out Trent,” he said. “You get Saul, and I’ll grab Ivanna.”
“Better warn Blade,” Finn said.
Jason called Blade and told him to shield Avery and Mrs. Bonet against Saul, Ivanna, and Trent.
“I’ll try,” he said. “But they’re awfully chummy. They’re crowded around each other looking at pictures on a phone.”
“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Avery’s voice screeched, followed by the sounds of shuffling and the phone dropping. More shouts, screams, and scuffling could be heard, but Jason couldn’t make out any words.
“They got her,” Jason shouted. “Call nine-one-one. Tell them to meet us at 30 Hudson Yards. Possible injection of tetrodotoxin, or TTX.”
Finn repeated Jason’s comments to the nine-one-one operator who told him to stay on the line.
Jason called Damon. “I need you to call your father. No time to explain. Your sister might have been poisoned by tetrodotoxin, TTX, pufferfish poison. Tell him to call the Army biological weapons lab for monoclonal antibody treatment. Stat.”
The elevator blissfully stopped, and Jason exploded out the opening door. A group of people milled around a collapsed figure.
It was Avery, and she was convulsing and having trouble breathing. Jason swooped down on her and locked his lips over hers, sealing it. He’d breathe for her until help arrived.
Chapter Fifty
Avery wasconscious the entire time, but numb, so numb she couldn’t feel her own lips. She was cold, so very, very cold, and she couldn’t talk, couldn’t even breathe.
But she was protected, and Jason was blowing air into her lungs, keeping her alive. Keeping her safe.
She caught his gaze, resolute and concerned, and heard his voice. She could barely feel his hands on her, and she definitely couldn’t move a muscle.
It was like she was a zombie. Half-dead and half-alive. What had happened? One minute, she was gaping at the pictures on Saul’s camera. He’d taken tons of impromptu images, and the next, she felt the pinprick of a needle and her muscles relaxed or stiffened; either way, she lost control and collapsed to the floor of the elevator.
Blade and Trent carried her out and laid her on the cold, hard ground, and Mrs. Bonet fainted in Kerry’s arms. She wasn’t sure where Ivanna and Saul ran off to.
Everything felt farther and farther away, as if she really wasn’t present. She wished she was still up on the sky deck, facing up so she could reach for the stars and Brando.
Was this how it felt to die? A peace that enveloped her like a bodysuit. She was cold. So cold, and at the same time, she didn’t care.
“Stay with me, Avery,” Jason said between breaths. “Look at me. I need you to stay awake.”
“I’m tired,” she tried to move her mouth. She didn’t want him to keep exerting himself. It didn’t matter much what happened next. She’d given Brando the tribute and honor he deserved.
“I need you to stay with me.” Jason caressed her face.
“Her lips are turning blue,” Kerry said. “Where’s the ambulance? What’s taking so long?”
“Is Joan okay?” Avery thought her mouth moved, but she wasn’t sure.
“Joan is fine. She’s worried about you, and she needs you to live.” Kerry’s voice sounded distorted, like it was coming from behind a wall of hair gel—not that she knew what that would do to sound. She was getting loopy, her brain shutting down, feeling light like a feather floating in the sea breeze.
Avery let her eyes close. It was too hard to keep them open. Her last glimpse in this world was her shining knight, Jason Burnett. She’d never forgot those mesmerizing eyes, the fierce look of a guy who never gave up, who’d resist cashing in his chips, and who’d keep on breathing for her. She had no doubt he would carry her wherever she wanted to go.
She relaxed, because there wasn’t anything to do, and soon, her ears picked up the sounds of sirens. Help had arrived.
